In the eight years that Lawrie Pollard interviewed candidates for the Loran Scholars Foundation, he was consistently impressed by the quality of the regional finalists. “The ten semi-finalists that we interview – wow! – the quality is very high, even at the regional level,” he said.
Mr. Pollard served as a mentor to Elliot Sims (W. Garfield Weston Loran Scholar ’04), and is a financial supporter of the Loran Scholars Foundation. “It is the responsibility of those who have significant wealth to support charitable causes and I am glad to invest in these students,” he says. “Those who go on to be selected as Loran Scholars have tremendous potential. It is a joy to meet them at interviews and to see them do so well later in life.”
Mr. Pollard is chairman of Pollard Banknote, a family business founded in 1907. He also served as a director of several charities, including the Winnipeg Foundation and Cancer Care Manitoba Foundation, and is a former governor of University of Manitoba. In 2005, the Winnipeg Foundation recognized him as Philanthropist of the Year.